GLUTEN IS KILLING YOU

Let's talk Gluten. This word makes me laugh at this point given it strikes fear into the hearts of hypochondriacs. You know something has lost merit when it's predominate use is in marketing. I mean, gluten free water? That's where I knew we lost the people. I wrote about this a long time ago, but I'm pulling some things out of the archives that I feel still plague the minds of the general population.

I don't expect anybody to run out and eat gluten. In fact, you might still never eat gluten again, and that's fine. My goal is to provide the tools to make an educated opinion/have an educated outlook on these items. So let's start with the simple one: what is gluten?

Seth Rogan hit the nail on the head: Gluten is a vague term that refers to things that are bad. Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8oz-G1zoSU

That clip is from the movie this is the end. It's worrisome to me that people would actually listen to what Seth Rogan is saying and agree. Funny movie, worth a watch. But back to science.

What Is Gluten?

The majority of research done on gluten exists in food science and has to do with the quality of baking and other food related items that have to do with bread and shit. Fun stuff. Gluten is a wheat protein. It's comprised of two main parts: glutenin and gliadin (6). Gliadin infractions (peptides (little strips of amino acids)) are the main component responsible for the negative health implications experienced by those with a gluten allergy. To be specific, it's the 33-mer peptide sequence (LQLQPFPQPQLPYPQPQLPYPQPQLPYPQPQPF) of alpha-gliadins. This peptide sequence is the most potent stimluator of T-cells and is the most immunogenic amongst them all (4, 5). All you need to take away from that: that little gliadin peptide is what people are allergic to. Turns out it's not some vague term that means things that are bad that will cause us to gain weight.

So gluten is wheat protein that's made up of gliadin and glutenin. Gliadin is the main culprit behind gluten related illnesses, but whats actually happening when we have celiac disease and eat gluten? The villi in small intestine get flattened and the surface area for nutrient absorption is highly reduced which leads to malnutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and other gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, bloating, loose bowel movements, and nausea (2, 3). There is a big difference between upset stomach and the damaging of the villi in the small intestine. It's easy to draw a false relation between poor food choices or ill-timed food choices and a true gluten allergy.

Taking The Gluten Test (Celiac & NCGS)

So how do we know when it is an allergy? Testing! We know gluten allergies are a very real thing and they can have serious health implications on those suffering from them. The problem here is that we've demonized gluten and convinced many people that they have celiac disease prior to actually getting a test. People love to self-diagnose. Quick WebMD search--either you have a stomach tumor or celiac. It's this type of fallacious thinking that plagues our world. And we wonder why the majority of people have chronic, low-grade anxiety. 

There are two ways you can get tested: the serological test (blood test) and a biopsy (taking a piece of your small intestine for analysis). The serological test looks for that 33-mer peptide sequence (LQLQPFPQPQLPYPQPQLPYPQPQLPYPQPQPF). Even then, this can be found in individuals without celiac and therefore requires further investigation such as the biopsy and then manipulation of the diet. The biopsy will show the damaged villi but still requires the use of diet manipulation to see whether the symptoms improve with the reduction or removal of gluten (1). They often opt not to re-biopsy due to it being expensive and invasive, they'll normally see if symptoms improve after reducing or eliminating gluten intake and then call it a day.

Took a test, don't have celiac? Luckily we came up with the term non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) so you too can feel included!

FODMAPS

There is a whole world out there of these carbohydrates that can lead to dietary-related illnesses/symptoms similar to those experienced from gluten: FODMAPS. This is a broad acronym stands for fermented, oligo-, di-, mono-, and poly-, saccharides. Basically, carbohydrates. These can be found in wheat, dairy, beans, vegetables, etc. Nowhere is safe, except meat (dope). I could write on this for days so I'll save FODMAPS for a later date.

ELIMINATION DIETS (DON'T DO IT)

Now what's the take away from all of this? Really that's up to you, I'm just here to share information. But I will give my two cents briefly: Our relationship with diet and exercise typically reflects our state of health. There are many things that go on in the body and make diagnosis of issues related to nutrition extremely ambiguous. We could find that foods with any bit of spice lead to acid reflux or that foods high in sodium cause our feet to swell and that dairy makes us bloat. The problem is, without a true diagnosis, the issue could be related to a litany of variables making it nearly impossible for us to guess. You could have slept poorly and now your body is sensitive that day to these foods. You could have experienced a stressful life event that left your immune system semi-compromised or at least enough to experience the on-set of these symptoms. You could have worked out too hard and left your body in a weakened state that now allows the foods to cause negative reactions. The list goes on and on. What should we not do? ELIMINATE THESE FOODS.

Picture this: you're new to the gym. You go to the gym, you have a great workout, you wake up the next day and you're extremely sore. So now what? Do you stop going to the gym because you're sore? Is that going to help you be less sore next time you decide to go to the gym or have to do anything physical? Of course not. If you ever want to go to the gym and not be unimaginably sore, you need to go consistently. You go a little bit at a time and build up a tolerance to the damage to muscle tissue and subsequent soreness that follows. This concept is called hormesis. Hormesis is the principle that a little bit of a bad thing is good. It's how we adapt and grow.

As Paracelsus said: "The dose makes the poison." You know those kids whose parents follow them around rubbing hand-sanitizer all over them 24/7? Not letting them play in the dirt or touch anything that might potentially have any sort of germs? Yeah, when those kids get sick they get REALLY sick cause their immune system has no understanding of how to defend itself. It's like taking a rookie boxer, not having them train because you don't want them to get punched and then putting them in the ring. It's gotta be classified as some type of abuse. But I'm verging way too far from the topic.

I'll leave you with this. When I was anorexic, I was very unhealthy (obviously). At the same time, I convinced myself I was allergic to many things like dairy and I'm pretty sure at one point gluten was on my list. Because of my weakened state and my eliminating them from my diet, I couldn't touch these foods. I would react terribly. Those days are behind me. I don't like to watch people give themselves food allergies as I did out of nothing but ignorance. So, take the tests, find the proteins, talk to your doctor, and unless your microvilli are flat, go eat some gluten.

~ Bonde

References

1. Freeman HJ. Role of biopsy in diagnosis and treatment of adult celiac disease. Gastroenterol Hepatol Bed Bench. 2018 Summer;11(3):191-196. PMID: 30013741; PMCID: PMC6040035.
2. Green, Peter HR, and Christophe Cellier. "Celiac disease." New england journal of medicine 357.17 (2007): 1731-1743. 
3. Nardecchia, Silvia, et al. "Extra-intestinal manifestations of coeliac disease in children: clinical features and mechanisms." Frontiers in pediatrics 7 (2019): 56.
4. Qiao, Shuo-Wang, et al. "Refining the rules of gliadin T cell epitope binding to the disease-associated DQ2 molecule in celiac disease: importance of proline spacing and glutamine deamidation." The Journal of Immunology 175.1 (2005): 254-261.
5. Shan, Lu, et al. "Structural basis for gluten intolerance in celiac sprue." Science 297.5590 (2002): 2275-2279. 
6. Wieser, H. (2007). Chemistry of gluten proteins. Food Microbiology, 24(2), 115–119. doi:10.1016/j.fm.2006.07.004